Relevance : GS Paper III
Introduction
Revival of the Indian systems of medicine -AYUSH- served as one of the themes of the cultural nationalistic reassertion against the British rule.
Initiatives to promote AYUSH
- A number of initiatives to promote AYUSH have been recently announced. This includes:
- creating AYUSH wings in defence and railway hospitals;
- giving soft loans and subsidies for the establishment of private AYUSH hospitals and clinics; and
- building institutes of excellence in teaching and research in AYUSH.
- Also, 12,500 dedicated AYUSH health and wellness centres are planned to be set up under the Ayushman Bharat mission.
A fraught relationship
- AYUSH’s relationship with modern medicine has been fraught with multiple issues such as:
- quackery by AYUSH practitioners;
- ridicule of AYUSH treatments and procedures by many; and
- mindless cosmeticisation and export promotion of AYUSH products.
- However, little strategy has been devised to address these concerns..
Integration of AYUSH with modern medicine
- Cross-learning and collaboration between the modern and traditional systems is required.
- We can learn from the Chinese experience of integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine with Western medicine.
- Building a strong traditional medicine evidence corpus.
- Negotiating the divergences between the two systems.
- Standardising and regulating AYUSH practices and qualifications; and
Conclusion
An integrated framework should create a middle path — fusing the two systems, while still permitting some autonomy for each.
